On Churches, Wagon Drivers, And Contradictions
Is Christianity good or bad for the Jews? What about thinking?
Douglas Adams Wasn’t An Atheist
“He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.” … “Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we […]
Nodding in despair, leaning on the Chevy, I considered my options. It was a bright Friday morning in May and the southern sun beat down on my hat and jacket, mocking the choices that tormented me as they torment all mortal men. The short ceremony at the imposing villa was over and I’d retreated to […]
I despise very few things on G-d’s green earth, and at first glance words should be no different. If I am indeed a fervent believer in balance, constantly reminding myself that every stick has two ends and stopped clocks etc., why are there still certain arrangements of English letters that make me grind my teeth, […]
Dear frum-from-birth Orthodox Jews (even the ones I know), I’m just writing to say thank you. I am a Baal Teshuva. I did not grow up within the traditional Jewish world. I was brought into it by people like you. And for that, I am eternally grateful. Now, I know you’re waiting for the sucker […]
The World’s Shortest (Jewish!) Personality Quiz
Somehow, in recent years, BuzzFeed has revived one of the oldest irritating features of the Internet: useless “which character are you” personality quizzes. Also quite popular nowadays are the more serious tools of personality analysis, such as Meyers-Briggs (INFP, regrettably) and the Enneagram (9…no one believes me). Generally, ever-larger swaths of the population are engaging […]
10 Atheist Arguments I Like (part 10)
~ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 ~ Last time, we spoke about the famous Euthyphro dilemma, and whether a G-d-based morality is self-contradictory. In this, the final installment in this series, […]
10 Atheist Arguments I Like (part 9)
~ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 ~ In our last installment, we spoke about that old religious chestnut that G-d doesn’t give us problems we can’t handle. We pointed out what […]
Hello. It’s 2 AM. And Pesach Is Coming.
I learn Torah now from 2:30 to 3:30 on Thursday mornings. This is how it happened: I have a chevrusa (a one-on-one study session) with a genius from Israel once a week. It involves a lot of him talking very quickly and me nodding as if I understand, and we used to do it at […]
10 Atheist Arguments I Like (part 8)
“G-d gives you problems you can’t handle all the time.”